Hope and Fail

Alito’s still right; president still lies

It’s too bad the president’s weekly radio/video/Internet address is recorded in an empty room with no audience. The setting avoids the images of a Supreme Court justice mouthing the words “not true” in reaction to Barack Obama.

Because President Obama repeated some whoppers this week.

Going after the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, again, Obama the Constitutional-law professor got his facts wrong, again. After the political media focused so much on Justice Samuel Alito’s reaction to the president during his most recent State of the Union, one wouldn’t be remiss to assume the president would recheck his facts.

Not so with Barack Obama. Here’s what he said this week:

That’s one of the reasons I ran for President: because I believe so strongly that the voices of ordinary Americans were being drowned out by the clamor of a privileged few in Washington. And that’s why, since the day I took office, my administration has been taking steps to reform the system. Recently, however, the Supreme Court issued a decision that overturned decades of law and precedent – dealing a huge blow to our efforts to rein in this undue influence. In short, this decision gives corporations and other special interests the power to spend unlimited amounts of money – literally millions of dollars – to affect elections throughout our country. This, in turn, will multiply their influence over decision-making in our government.

The Supreme Court decision did not, as the president said, overturn “decades of law and precedent.” The court struck down a provision of the McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill of 2002 — an 8-year-old law — that banned companies and other entities from spending their cash directly on campaigns as opposed to filtering their money through a PAC.

From the New York Times:

Indeed, Mr. Obama’s description of the holding of the case was imprecise. He said the court had “reversed a century of law.”

The law that Congress enacted in the populist days of the early 20th century prohibited direct corporate contributions to political campaigns. That law was not at issue in the Citizens United case, and is still on the books. Rather, the court struck down a more complicated statute that barred corporations and unions from spending money directly from their treasuries — as opposed to their political action committees — on television advertising to urge a vote for or against a federal candidate in the period immediately before the election. It is true, though, that the majority wrote so broadly about corporate free speech rights as to call into question other limitations as well — although not necessarily the existing ban on direct contributions.

Back in January the president said the decision would allow foreign entities to contribute money to U.S. campaigns, and Obama is still spreading that lie:

In addition, these reforms would address another troubling aspect of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Under the bill Congress will consider, we’ll make sure that foreign corporations and foreign nationals are restricted from spending money to influence American elections, just as they were in the past – even through U.S. subsidiaries.

Foreign companies flexing their financial muscle in U.S. elections is scary stuff, for sure, but he court did not “open the floodgates” for foreign contributions. They are still illegal.

From the National Review:

The Court held that 2 U.S.C. Section 441a, which prohibits all corporate political spending, is unconstitutional. Foreign nationals, specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibiting from making “a contribution or donation of money or ather thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State or local election” under 2 U.S.C. Section 441e, which was not at issue in the case. Foreign corporations are also prohibited, under 2 U.S.C. 441e, from making any contribution or donation to any committee of any political party, and they prohibited from making any “expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication.”

The president is lying. Again. Alito knows it: